Atalanta's Conference League Challenge: Sarri Prepares for Tough Match
Maurizio Sarri is braced for a long, draining night. Atalanta’s Conference League play-off with Hapoel Tel Aviv is on a knife-edge after a goalless first leg at the New Balance Arena, and the coach knows exactly what is at stake on Thursday.
Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, with comments reported via TuttoMercatoWeb, Sarri cut through any hint of comfort. His message was blunt: belief, yes. Arrogance, no.
“It’ll be a difficult match, we saw that in the first leg, but we have to be convinced we can do it,” he said. “Clearly without becoming presumptuous. We want to play in a European competition. It’ll be tough against a team in great physical condition.”
The tone was deliberate. Atalanta want Europe. They have to earn it.
De Ketelaere back, but only in doses
There is at least one piece of good news. Charles De Ketelaere is available again. Just not fully.
Sarri welcomed the Belgian back into the squad but admitted he is still managing a “small adductor problem” that has limited his training time.
“He’s trained very little after the small adductor problem,” Sarri explained. “He did half an hour in the league, his usage will have to be partial. I don’t know whether to start him or bring him on, also because we don’t know how long the match will last.”
That last line tells its own story. With the tie level and extra time a real possibility, every minute of De Ketelaere’s involvement has to be calculated.
Scamacca or Krstovic – or both?
Up front, the picture is no clearer. The centre-forward role remains a live debate inside Sarri’s head.
“I haven’t decided yet,” he admitted when asked to choose between Gianluca Scamacca and Nikola Krstovic. “They’re doing well and both seem to be improving. Over the season they’ll alternate based on who is in better shape, then we’ll also play them together.”
That flexibility could matter in Hungary. A tight, tactical game could demand a single reference point in attack. A stretched, chaotic one might invite the coach to unleash them as a pair.
Hapoel threat unchanged
If Sarri is wrestling with his own options, he expects no such uncertainty from Elyaniv Barda.
Hapoel Tel Aviv have already knocked out Ludogorets and GKS Katowice to reach this stage, and they impressed Sarri with their clarity and intensity in the first leg.
“They gather well and then break well,” he said. “I don’t think they’ll change their attitude much, we’ll see.”
They don’t need to. Organised, compact, and dangerous in transition, Hapoel have already shown they can survive long spells without the ball and still hurt opponents. The second leg, shifted to a neutral venue in Hungary rather than being played in Israel, adds another layer of strangeness to a tie that has never quite settled.
Defence still learning Sarri’s code
Sarri did not sugar-coat the state of his own team’s development, especially at the back.
“It’s still lacking, there’s no point saying otherwise today,” he said of how his defenders are absorbing his demands.
Then came the warning, half observation, half prediction.
“The most difficult moment will be when they think they know how to do certain things and instead they still aren’t able to.”
It is the classic Sarri paradox. His football is built on automatisms, patterns, and precision. The danger arrives when players believe they’ve mastered them and start to improvise before they’re ready.
On Thursday, there will be no margin for illusions. One mistake, one lost duel, one misread trigger could decide a European campaign. Atalanta know what they want. Now they have to prove they’re ready to suffer for it.
